- KSÜ Doğa Bilimleri Dergisi
- Vol: 13 Issue: 2
- The Preliminary Study on The Contamination of Warehouse-Stored Pistachios with Aflatoxinogenic Fungi...
The Preliminary Study on The Contamination of Warehouse-Stored Pistachios with Aflatoxinogenic Fungi in Kermanshah, Iran: The Tip of The Iceberg
Authors : Ali Mikaeili, Isaac Karimi, Tanaz Bakhtiar
Pages : 4-7
View : 30 | Download : 2
Publication Date : 2010-09-01
Article Type : Research
Abstract :The aim of this study was to determine the amount and type of aflatoxinogenic fungi on samples of pistachios collected from warehouses in Kermanshah, Iran. Overall, a total of 632 samples were randomly collected and based on their physical properties the samples were categorized into following groups: (i) raw pistachio with intact shells, (ii) raw pistachio with broken and damaged shells, (iii) salted pistachio with intact shell, and (iv) salted pistachio with broken and damaged shell. Then 158 subsamples were chosen from each category. The overall contamination rate was 66%. The fungus contamination rates were significantly lower in salted in compared to raw samples (p<0.05). The percent contaminated samples recorded 45.6% and 33.3% in salted pistachio with intact shell and salted pistachio with damaged shell, respectively. The most fungal contamination rate was recorded for Aspergillus niger followed by Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus terreus in all categories. The percent contamination of samples by Aspergillus niger was significantly higher in raw samples in comparison to salted samples. The salted pistachio with damaged shell was significantly lesser contaminated to Aspergillus niger when compared with the salted pistachio with intact shell (p<0.05). The Penicilium spp. contamination rates were significantly higher in damaged shell samples compared to intact shell samples and apparently this type of contamination did not decrease in salt-treated samples while, the salted, intact shell samples have shown significantly more Aspergillus flavus contamination rates than salted, damaged shell (p<0.05). The Aspergillus terreus contamination rates were significantly higher in intact shell samples compared to damaged shell samples. These toxigenic fungi isolated raises concerns on the potential of pistachio products as a natural substrate prone to the mycotoxin formation .Keywords : Aspergillus species, Penicillium species, pistachio, Iran